Monster Costume, an iOS developer focused on recreating the way children interact with books, has released Bartleby's Book of Buttons Volume 2, and it's got some nice AirPlay surprises packed in. When using an AirPlay mirroring-capable device like the iPad 2, iPhone 4, or iPhone 4S, you can send the story to your Apple TV in high definition, while the device then become a controller for progressing the story. We've been fans of Bartleby since Volume 1, and you can pick up Bartleby Vol. 2 now on the App Store. Full release after the break.

In this video you get a look at an unannounced feature of Apple's AirPlay. You have an iPad 2 running Bartleby's Book of Buttons: Vol. II, and you have an Apple TV. Now, this demo isn't showing the AirPlay wireless capability, due to the NDA, and instead uses a cable - but make no mistake, this is already working wirelessly over AirPlay.

What is interesting is that you have something showing on the iPad display, and something totally different showing on the Apple TV. In other words, the Apple TV is acting as the app, and the iPad has become the controller for the app. Imagine the possibilities this introduces for iPad gaming.

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One of our favorite iPad apps for children, Bartleby's Book of Buttons: Volume I, is now being served up for free thanks fo the folks at Monster Costume. They're prepping Volume 2 of the storybook, and have decided to make Volume I (which typically sells for $4.99) free through WWDC 2011. If you've got an iPad, you should have Bartleby on it. Why? See our Bartleby's Book of Buttons review.

We’ve covered Bartleby’s Book of Buttons a few times here on the site, mostly because we think it’s a great app that has a lot of potential to set the stage for some truly interactive storytelling on the iPad and other gesture-based devices. Okay, enough of all that future talk, let’s talk about what we’ve got going on today. We will be giving away two copies of Bartleby’s Book of Buttons Vol. 1: The Far Away Land for iPad at the end of the day to two randomly chosen entrants.

We visit the Monster Costume offices to get a look at their awesome new iPad app, Bartleby’s Book of Buttons Vol. 1: The Far Away Land. Aimed at children and parents, Bartleby is a new take on what a book can be when you have the power of the iPad and its multitouch screen at your disposal. Rather than focusing on pages, the book focuses on interaction with the story, character, and elements.

We also chat about the potential future of interactive books in general, and where Monster Costume sees that they can take their publishing platform in the future.

Hey, all you iPad-owning parents out there, if you are looking for a children’s storybook that does more than just read aloud to your kids, you’ve gotta check out Bartleby’s Book of Buttons Vol. 1: The Far Away Island. What makes this different enough to warrant our excitement? Well, we’ve been playing with it since it’s been in beta, and it’s just fun for kids…and to be honest, even fun for an adult to go through once or twice. It’s a case study for how you can take books, and do them differently on the iPad, providing a fun, interactive experience for kids and parents to share together. Each chapter of the book is a puzzle that follows the story, but to get to the next chapter, you must first solve the puzzle. Each puzzle that you solve “unlocks” that chapter in the table of contents, so you can skip to any unlocked chapter from the beginning.

The puzzles aren’t hard, but for a little child it might take them a minute or two of playing with the page to figure it out, which is great to see. We’ve got a Bartleby Book of Buttons gallery that shows you a page from each chapter, to give you an idea of what we mean. But seriously, if you have a child between the ages of, say, 5-10, we don’t see how you can go wrong. Bartleby’s Book of Buttons Vol. 1 is available now on the App Store for $4.99.